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Steve Strauss - USA TODAY Columnist

Steven D. Strauss is the country’s leading small business expert. An internationally recognized lawyer, columnist, and speaker, Steve is also an author of 15 books. Steve’s highly syndicated business column, Ask an Expert, appears weekly at USATODAY.com He is also the small business columnist for Microsoft, and AT&T who calls him “America’s Small Business Expert.”

A highly sought after commentator and media guest, Steve has been featured on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg Television, The O’Reilly Factor, and the BBC. He has been a regular guest on MSNBC’s small business show, Your Business. Steve has been seen in many magazines and newspapers, including Time, Inc., Entrepreneur, New York, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, and scores of others.

Steve regularly speaks to groups the world over regarding business matters, including a recent visit to the United Nations. He has also recently acted as the small business spokesperson for Bank of America, Humana Insurance, and Capitol One, among others. Steve has given speeches for many companies and organizations, including HP, Staples, the United States embassies in Jordan, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia, the United States State Department, the Small Business Administration, and Bausch & Lomb.

Finally, Steve is the president of The Strauss Group, Inc: Strauss Law Firm, Strauss Seminar Co., and Strauss Syndication. He graduated from UCLA, the Claremont Graduate School, the Coro Foundation, and the McGeorge School of Law. If you would like to get in touch with him, or have him speak to your group, please contact him here.

Social Media for Beginners

By: Admin(Published on 02.28.2012)

How and Why to Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon

When it comes to social media and the self employed, the lesson is: Better late than never. While social media is obviously becoming a significant force in the small business world and is not going anywhere, recent statistics indicate that only about half of the self employed use it as part of their marketing plan.

That means that more than 50% of the self-employed and freelancers alike still are not using social media and that’s a shame. Social media offers small business owners a multitude of benefits, including the ability to build their brand, to become a thought leader, and to find leads. But most of all, social media is the word of mouth advertising of the 21st century, and we all know that word of mouth advertising is the best, right?

Social Media’s Many Benefits for the Self Employed

Here’s what we mean: When you tweet something and one of your followers retweets it to their followers, that is word of mouth gold. When your fan page is liked and new people see that their friends like your page, that is social media magic. And when someone forwards your blog post on to their network, that is word of mouth today.

So if you are one of the 50% who is not taking advantage of this incredible opportunity, resolve to make this the year you rectify that situation and begin to use social media to your benefit.

Social media is the word of mouth advertising of the 21st century.

First, decide which site best fits your style while also offering you the chance to get in front the most potential customers. It is best to dive in deep with one site, rather than being negligible on three. Your choices are (of course):

• Facebook. As you know, Facebook is a great place to connect with people and informally share updates. Because it is in fact so informal and easy to connect there, and since so many people are on the site, it is the first choice for many small business people.

• Think of Twitter as an ongoing conversation that you can join at any time. The connections and interactions are different than Facebook since tweets are shorter and have a shorter shelf-life than a Facebook status update.

• LinkedIn is, of course, a fantastic site to grow your network of colleagues.

Next, if you haven’t already, build a business profile for the site you choose to master. After that, it is a matter of getting your feet wet and then really learning and using the platform. The important thing is that you be a giver and not a taker. That is, offer content that other people would find interesting and useful. Don’t just post about you and your business. Posting articles and content that customers or others in your industry would find interesting gets you noticed. Other things you could do:

• Post daily or weekly specials that your freelance business is offering
• Share business or industry news for independent contractors of all stripes
• Network. It is also called social networking for a reason.

Social media is an incredible opportunity for growing a freelance or solopreneur business. Consider making it part of your marketing mix today.